External Plasma-Breathing Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion
The hazard posed by space debris has the potential to severely dampen future space prospects.
Though mitigation strategies such as satellite deorbiting and active debris removal exist,
both are hindered by significant technical and economic challenges, such as the need for
high Delta-V budgets. Atmosphere-breathing spacecraft propulsion has gathered attention due
to its potential to avoid onboard propellant storage, but current implementations involve
major architectural modifications. In this context, an external magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
propulsion system is proposed as a low-footprint alternative that avoids major spacecraft
redesigns by adopting an external patch configuration.
It is found that the mass and power requirements scale linearly with the mass of the
spacecraft, and that both passive and active drag components exist, and are of similar
magnitude. Adopting a first-order analysis scheme, the effective specific impulse
(defined as impulse generated per unit device mass) of the MHD conductive propulsion system
is found to be 4-10 km/s for mission durations of 2-10 years and 10-20 km/s for mission
durations of 25 years. Both active and passive uses of conductive MHD propulsion are found
to be competitive against current propulsion technologies. Drawbacks of conductive MHD
propulsion, such as those associated with the necessity of strong magnetic fields
for operation, are also being considered.
In the near future, I plan to implement particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations as they account
for low-density effects and nonlinear particle motion.
I enjoyed presenting my research at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics in Denver on October 31, 2023.